BHOPAL: The most loving day of the year, the Valentine’s Day is what smitten sweethearts await for the whole year. The cards have been sent, the flowers ordered, the chocolates bought and the fantastically romantic (and not at all overcrowded or overpriced) restaurant has been booked. While the day falling once a year is celebrated by the couples in love, there are also a few for whom everyday is the Valentine’s Day, hidden in the sweet memories they share, little things they do for each other and in the support which makes their bond stronger day by day. These two love stories have friendship as their foundation and this makes relationship of the couples stronger.
Neelam Tripathi and Narendra Tripathi
“I saw her for the first time when I went to meet her brother Anil, who was my friend. I saw her and I knew that she was the one. Bas fir kya tha, humne shuru kar diya inke colony ka chakkar kaatna”, said Narendra Tripathi laughing. Neelam and Narendra Tripathi got married in 1979 and say that Mirch-Masala comes in every love story even if you don’t want it to. “I used to call him Tripathi Bhaisahab, because for me he was just my brother’s friend. I met him very often on my way to college. My friends used to tell me that there is something wrong and used to shoo them up saying that he is Tripathi bhaisahab”, laughs Neelam adding, “One day I saw, that he was waiting on the way of my college with his mother and she was checking me from tip to toe. I felt very uneasy. Next day, he came to me and proposed me. I immediately asked him to not talk to me and talk to my parents”.
“I went to her parents and surprisingly they agreed but both our families got stuck at horoscope match. To avoid any chances of loosing her, I got fake horoscopes made of both of us. Unfortunately, the pandit unknowingly, uttered everything when I was sitting with my father. He didn’t knew my father. I was so scared but it was only then that I decided that no kundali can come between us now. They didn’t match but see we are so happy”, said Narendra.
Sharing the secret of their bond, they said in unison ‘friendship’. “After marriage we both realised that a relationship can sustain if you are friends and that has been the most important bond we have developed in all these years”, they both say.
Priti and Gaurva Sharma
Priti and Gaurav cannot hear and cannot speak. They studied in the same special school, Asha Niketan and had a Tom & Jerry relationship, fighting all the time. It was in between those fights, they realised that they loved each other. “He proposed me in Class 9 and soon our parents came to know about it”, says Priti. After their parents came to know about their relationship, Priti’s parents took her to Kanpur from where they communicated through letters. “We wrote letters and that was the only way we could talk but our parents found the letters and they also realised that we really loved each other”, said Gaurav. The cute couple was given the condition that they will tie the nuptial knot only if their horoscopes matched. Fortunately, their stars aligned and they were engaged on February 14 and got married the next day. The cute couples proudly say that they are friends first and this is the strength of their relationship. Still fighting, pinching and punching each other, Priti and Gaurav love the simplicity of their relationship. They feel that if they hadn’t fought so much, they wouldn’t have realised how much they love each other. Day by day their bond gets stronger because of the bond of friendship. Their 9-year-old daughter Gauranshi, also cannot hear and speak but for her too, this is not a hurdle. She is the youngest badminton player of state, who has won many matches and is a diehard selfie lover.
(All the communication was done in writing)
